File/Folder Permissions and Groups

Every file and directory on a server has a set of access permissions associated with it. These include the owner of a file, the group a file is associated with, and who has read, write, and execute permission on that file. These permissions allow you to choose who can use your files, and control what they can do with them. There are three groups in terms of file access, and three different permission types they can receive.

The groups are:

Owner: the Owner group consists only of the owner of the website

Group: The group permission pertains to users who are listed in the group to which the file is assigned

Everyone: the Other group consists of everyone else like website visitors

The potential permissions are:

Read: this allows a user or program the ability to read the data in a file

Write: the Write permission allows a user or program the ability to write new data into a file, and to remove data from it

Execute: the Execute permission allows a user or program the ability to execute a file, if it is a program or a script

Setting Permissions Numerically

Numeric Value

Permission

0

No Permission

1

Execute

2

Write

3

Write + Execute

4

Read

5

Read + Execute

6

Read + Write

7

Read + Write + Execute

Note

It is highly recommened that you do not set 777 as the file/folder permission, as this may pose a security hazard to your website.